Editing Sega (section)

====Dreamcast====
{{Main|Dreamcast}}
[[File:Sega Dreamcast.png|thumb|250px|left|The [[Dreamcast]].]]
In September 1999 (the date 9 September 1999 was featured heavily in American promotions), Sega launched the [[Dreamcast]] game console in North America. The Dreamcast was competitively priced, partly due to the use of off-the-shelf components, but it also featured technology that allowed for more technically impressive games than its direct competitors, the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation. An analog 56k modem was also included, allowing gamers to play multiplayer games online on a home console for the first time, featuring titles such as the action-puzzle title ''Chu Chu Rocket'', ''Phantasy Star Online'', the first console-based MMORPG, and the innovative ''Alien Front Online'', the first console game with online voice chat.

The Dreamcast's launch in Japan was a failure. Launching with a small library of software and in the shadow of the upcoming PS2, the system would not gain great success, despite several successful games in the region. The Western launch a year later was accompanied by a large amount of both 1st party and 3rd party software and an aggressive marketing campaign. It was extremely successful and earned the distinction of "most successful hardware launch in history," selling a then-unprecedented 500,000 consoles in its first week in North America.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Barr |first=Adrienne |url=http://www.vidgame.net/SEGA/DC.html |title=Sega Dreamcast (HKT-3020) |work=VidGame |year=2002 |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20040721061945/http://www.vidgame.net:80/SEGA/DC.html |archivedate=21 July 2004 |accessdate=5 August 2018}}</ref> Sega was able to hold onto this momentum in the US almost until the launch of [[Sony|Sony's]] [[PlayStation 2]]. The Dreamcast is home to several innovative and critically acclaimed games of the time, including one of the first cell-shaded titles, ''[[Jet Set Radio]]''; ''Seaman'', a game involving communication with a fish-type creature via microphone; a rhythm game involving the use of maracas, ''[[Samba de Amigo]]'', ''[[wikipedia:Shenmue|Shenmue]]'', an adventure game of vast scope with free-form gameplay and a striking attempt at creating a detailed in-game city and'' [[Sonic Adventure]]'', the first true 3D action/adventure Sonic game which was notable for being the top-selling game for the Dreamcast, selling 2.5 million copies. Despite receiving critical acclaim, these titles failed to garner much public attention in the face of the upcoming PlayStation 2 launch.

Faced with debt and competition from Sony's PlayStation 2, [[Nintendo]]'s [[Nintendo GameCube|GameCube]], and [[Microsoft]]'s [[Xbox]] (although Microsoft hadn't entered the video game market at this point), Sega officially discontinued the Dreamcast hardware in 2001. The final game Sega released for it was ''NHL 2K2''. This was the last SEGA console to be released in the USA, while in Japan, Advanced Pico Beena was the last console to be released in Japan.